Commentaries on the Laws of England, Volume 3

A Facsimile of the First Edition of 1765-1769

Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769) stands as the first great effort to reduce the English common law to a unified and rational system. Blackstone demonstrated that the English law as a system of justice was comparable to Roman law and the civil law of the Continent. Clearly and elegantly written, the work achieved immediate renown and exerted a powerful influence on legal education in England and in America which was to last into the late nineteenth century. The book is regarded not only as a legal classic but as a literary masterpiece.

Previously available only in an expensive hardcover set, Commentaries on the Laws of England is published here in four separate volumes, each one affordably priced in a paperback edition. These works are facsimiles of the eighteenth-century first edition and are undistorted by later interpolations. Each volume deals with a particular field of law and carries with it an introduction by a leading contemporary scholar.

Introducing this third volume, Of Private Wrongs, John H. Langbein discusses Blackstone's account of procedure and jurisdiction, jury trial, and equity. He also examines Blackstone's uneasy attitude toward the celebrated legal frictions of English civil procedure.

Book III - Of Private Wrongs 1. Of the Redress of Private Wrongs by the mere act of the Parties 2. Of Redress by the mere operation of Law 3. Of Courts in general 4. Of the Public Courts of Common Law and Equity 5. Of Courts Ecclesiastical, Military, and Maritime 6. Of Courts of a Special Jurisdiction 7. Of the Cognizance of Private Wrongs 8. Of Wrongs, and their Remedies, respecting the Rights of Persons 9. Of Injuries to Personal Property 10. Of Injuries to Real Property, and first of Dispossession, or Ouster, of the Freehold 11. Of Dispossession, or Ouster, of Chattels Real 12. Of Trespass 13. Of Nusance 14. Of Waste 15. Of Subtraction 16. Of Disturbance 17. Of Injuries proceeding from, or affecting, the Crown 18. Of the Pursuit of Remedies by Action; and, first, of the Original Writ 19. Of Process 20. Of Pleading 21. Of Issue and Demurrer 22. Of the Several Species of Trial 23. Of the Trial by Jury 24. Of Judgment, and it's Incidents 25. Of Proceedings, in the nature of Appeals 26. Of Execution 27. Of Proceedings in the Courts of Equity Appendix

For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu